Town lots were laid out there in the summer of 1787, and two years afterward the freeholders of the fembryo city, at a meeting in Albany, resolved that "in future it should be called and known by the name of Troy." At the same time, with the prescience of observing men, they said -- " It may not be too sanguine to expect, at no very distant period, to see Troy as famous for her trade and navigation as many of our first towns." It wos incorporated a village in 1801, and a city in 1816.

From the beginning Troy was a rival of Lansingburgh. It was settled chiefly by enterprising New England people. They perceived the advantages of their location at the head of tide-water and sloop navigation, between two fine streams (Poesten Kill and Wynant's Kill) that flow in wild cascades from Mount Ida and its connections, afi'ording

« Stephen Asliley kept tlie first tavern at llie ferry, in the farm-house of Mattluas Vanderheyden, on the south-east corner of Kiver and Division Streets. It is tlie oldest Iiouse in Troy, having been built as early as 1752. On the front of the house, between the two windows on the left, was a brick, on which was cut " q V H. A.D. ' * - ^ ,

1752." The initials stood for Derick (Richard) Vanderheyden. The D was reversed. Between the second window on the left and the door was another brick inscribed "M V H. 1752." These were the initials of Matthias Vanderheyden. South of the window on the right, and a little above it, was another brick inscribed " I V H. 1752." These were the initials of Jacob Vanderheyden. Matthias occupied tliis, and the other two built houses elsewhere on the plot. AsWey afterward kept an inn at the corner of Eiver and Ferry Streets.